London bean-counters have counted fewer Brits in Thailand
Your correspondent is out of date in predicting the British Embassy will now move to a dull-grey office block in a traffic-snarled area.
Large chunks are already there on the 28th floor of Trendy House, Sukhumvit Soi 13, where everyone has been trooping for many years to apply for a UK visa or for a British passport. It is a simple move to get rid of the residual functions still housed at the main-site embassy in Wireless Road and then to rehouse the ambassador in gracious surroundings elsewhere.
What is perhaps a cause for greater sadness is the closure of both provincial offices in Chiang Mai and in Pattaya some years ago in the name of financial savings and the reduction in frontline services in Bangkok, which have made it much harder for Brits here with a serious problem actually to meet a human being in person. They run the risk of being given the run-around on telephone answering services and being directed to various official websites and to the tender mercies of the social media.
As the number of Brits in Thailand – tourists and expats – continues to decline from the highs of 10 years ago, the bean-counters in London can certainly relax that “fings ain’t what they used to be”.
Barry Kenyon
Pattaya
